Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Analysis: Winners and losers in Tuesday's races

Girl Power! The primary elections on Tuesday were dominated by women winners. CNN today gives Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln a special shout out for successfully overcoming an aggressive, multimillion-dollar campaign by national unions and liberal interest groups. Among her, were other female winners I will list below with a little information about them from CNN.com:

Nikki Haley: After enduring more than two weeks of accusations of infidelity, South Carolina state Rep. Nikki Haley nearly walked away with the 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a runoff in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Not one, but two men have claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Haley, who deftly maintained her composure and denied the allegations. The voters responded.

Sharron Angle: The Tea Party movement and the anti-tax Club for Growth scored a win Tuesday after Sharron Angle emerged as the nominee in the crowded field of Republicans running in Nevada's Senate primary. Angle topped former state Republican Party chair Sue Lowden and businessman Danny Tarkanian for the right to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November.

California's CEOs: Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina turned impressive resumes in the business world into Republican tickets for the November show. Whitman, the former eBay CEO, spent more than $71 million of her own money to ensure that she defeated rival Steve Poizner in the race for California's Republican gubernatorial nomination.

Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, beat out conservative Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and centrist former Rep. Tom Campbell for the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November. And Boxer and Fiorina are wasting no time attacking one another in what will very likely be a brutal and expensive general election campaign.